American pronunciation standard

In the USA three main types of cultivated speech are recognized: the Eastern type (is used in New England and New-York), the Southern type (in the South and South-East of the USA) and Western or General American (the type of educated American speech – it’s spoken in the Central Atlantic States).

GA pronunciation is known to be the pronunciation standard of the USA. There are some reasons

for it. GA is the form of speech used by the radio and television. It is mostly used in scientific, cultural and business intercourse.

1. There is no strict division of vowels into long and short in GA, though some American phoneticians suggest that certain GA vowels are tense and likely to be accompanied by relative length: [i:] in seat, [u:] in pool.

2. Another very important feature is the pronunciation of [r] sound between a vowel and a consonant or between a vowel and a silence: turn [t3: r n], bird [b3: r d], star [sta:r]. It has been estimated that 2/3 of American population pronounce [r] and 1/3 omit (пропускать) it.

4. One more peculiar feature of pronunciation of vowels in American English is their nasalization, when they are preceded or followed by a nasal consonant (e.g. m such words as take, small, name, etc.).

5. GA front vowels are somewhat different from RP. Vowels [t), [I) are distributed differently in GA and RP.. In words like very, pity GA has [i:] rather than [I]. In word final position it is often even diphthongized.. Vowel [e] is more open in GA. It also may be diphthongized before [pI, [t], [k]: let [le)t].

6. The three RP vowels [0], lee], [a:) correspond to only two vowels in GA - [a] and [eel. This combined with the articulatory differences between RP [01 and GA [a) and a difference in vowel distribution in many sets of words makes i.t very complicated.

For ex. dog, path, dance, half